WhatsNext

Was thinking of buying a new house, since June this year the Euro lost a bit more than 9% against THB.... I think I'll stay put for a while longer. Will also ask for 9% more pension next month

Would be paying more tax than 95% of the Thai, no illusion however that i am in the same basket as the CP foods family. So a green card, rights to buy and own land, no 90 days BS, and so on same as the OECD that Thailand so desperately want to appease. Thai income tax is actually pretty high, if you have over 1 million THB per year, it already is 25% and goes up to 35% in the last bracket. It's more than some EU member states.

For 90% of the retired people, nothing will change as there is a tax treaty with quite a lot of countries. For the reaming 10%, that i fall under myself as well, it will be time to pay, at least on paper. Won't wake up the sleeping dogs, but i can see someone waking up in the government and adding a tax paper to the requirements of the yearly visa extension. Then it's time for Malaysia, Vietnam, Philippines or Cambodia as they have no taxes (or very little) for retirees. I am fine with paying taxes, but then i want the same rights as the Thai.

This comes back about once every year. Together with the planned / possible / maybe / flipflop tax plans, Thailand will not need much capacity anymore at Suvarnabhumi

So just for my understanding and maybe others that have the same question : USD/THB has a certain market value, then the EUR and GBP among others are just calculated from their rates vs the USD ? That's weird. Still means that everything else must be going down since otherwise the USD would be a lot lower against the EUR/GBP My head is spinning.

If you look at all currencies you can see that the THB is on the up. It's not only up against the USD but all major currencies : USD, EUR, GBP, AUSD and so on. Otherwise all those would have lost value at the same time ?

It definitely isn't ' the dollar going down, it is the THB going up which is the weird thing. And this since the soft coup and the political turmoil. 2 THB less per euro in just 6 weeks, that's more than a 5% difference in a very short time. Imagine if you ordered a new villa in Phuket for 50M and suddenly it is the equivalent of 2,5 Million THB more expensive in Euro's a few weeks later when you order the transfer. Let's hope things go back to normal soon.

Very true i have a house myself in Hua Hin and this is paid in cash of course, i do know some guys that borrow on their wife's name. However what i mean to say is that this is certainly not the majority of the expats in Thailand. Quite a lot of them don't have the 800k THB in the bank for the retirement visa and live on a basic EU pension which can be anywhere from 900 to about 1200 Euro if you are single. Like everywhere there are rich(er) and poor(er) people around, and in my years in Pattaya i certainly didn't get the impression that the majority had a lot of cash lying around. Most retirees live in places like the Markland, rooms in soi bukhao and condo's in Jomtien like the VT series. Rents are 12-20k and the rest is spend on drinking, girls and hanging out with the boys.

I think all of your friends are lucky to be American then maybe. Most retirees in Thailand are from Europe/UK and we have substantially less to spend. Salaries are a lot lower and most countries do not have massive over appreciation of house values. Again, happy for you but it's sadly not the rule if you aren't American, which is 95% of the world

This is one of the very few legitimate and safe, if done in a very short time frame like you did, use cases.

Just as about 32% of the men in Pattaya are ex marines, ex sas or ex secret service, i think that the number of cash millionaires retirees are grossly exaggerated. Most people i know, among which are a dentist, a lawyer, and several people that worked in ICT are certainly not rich and live in pensions/social security or eating their principal. Fantasy, boasting and general BS are quite big on this forum, so i would take all the 100 million baht plus for what it is, nonsense.

When do people realize that you can eat the principal.... 1 million on 20 years basis with say 4% return will give you a monthly of : 6039 UKP That's 268.433 baht ! To get 120.000 baht per month you only need a capital of : 446.050.. Please guys, learn how to use an annuity calculator and you can retire 10 years earlier than you think. *edit* For those crypto screamers : Yes there are people that got rich from it, there are however more people that lost money, Bitcoin is just a database, you are buying baked air, as long as everyone is fine with that, the value will increase. If someday people wake up to the nothingness of it all, it will poof in an instant. Keep Hodling ! Daimond hands, listen to airhead influencers, buy your coin, hype, hype, hype.

No not off, is it's inclusive eating the principal, many people forget that. Your last suit doesn't have any pockets to take the money with you.

Calculations are quite simple, and many people here overestimate the amount needed : 1 Million US for 30 years against 5% will give you 5345 USD per month or 187,075 Baht. That's way too much so you can make savings on that amount for later inflation easy peasy. So even without a pension, 35 Million Baht would be more, more than enough. I am 59 myself, have a new pool villa, a new SUV, a live in GF and spend less about 1 million baht per year. That is with the house and car paid for of course.

If this is implemented, with the emphasis on "If" then the following will apply : * All income before 2024 isn't taxed when you bring it in, meaning if you have savings and you bring them here, all is fine. By the way, this is how it should be as no country should tax imported savings So end effect : Keep your pension in your country of origin, or outside of Thailand anyway and live of your savings. BUT and it's a big but : This is Thailand, everything will change before the new year and then it will be forgotten to safe face, i am not that worried.